Blush Sweetly as the Dawn
by Anna Yukihira
Summary: Gold wants to go to the beach. Silver is along for the ride. They really don't spend that much time at the actual beach.


In my mind, this is a high school AU set in some English-speaking country in which Gold and Silver are not quite dating yet but probably will be, and in the meantime, they're besties, and Gold spends his time aggressively flirting with Silver, while Silver reminds himself not to kill him cause he actually likes Gold. To avoiding clogging up this AN, the rest of the details about this AU (and believe me, there is so much) will posted up on my tumblr.

This started out as a drabble for my tumblr, land-under-wave, using the prompt (stolen from otpprompts) "Person A presenting Person B a seashell." Obviously, it is no longer that. Yay. Also, I can't pace for anything.

I don't actually know how to flirt, so. Here goes.

* * *

"The beach?" Silver repeated, as they walked home from school. "Why would we go there, idiot?"

Gold grinned at him and slung his arm around his shoulder. "Because it'd be fun!" he half-sang. "The sun! The sand! The —"

"If you say girls, I will punch you straight through the stratosphere."

"Aw, jealous, Silv? Don't worry. You know you're the only one for me!"

Silver felt something twitching in his face. At this rate, he was going to burst a blood vessel or whatever it was that happened in cartoons.

"Anyways, it's a weekend, and I know you're free tomorrow!" Gold waggled an eyebrow at him suggestively, and Silver resisted the urge to punch him. "So, what do you say?"

Silver finally shook his arm off his shoulder. "Oh, fine," he grumbled. "If it'll get you to quit whining about it."

As always, his lack of enthusiasm never seemed to bother the idiot. Gold just grinned at him some more and said, "I knew you'd agree to it eventually! Meet me at the train station at eight!" before they reached the junction where they usually separated, and Gold ran off towards his house.

"Don't just leave without planning anything first!" Silver shouted after him. It wasn't any use. Gold just spun around, waved cheekily at him, and then continued running forward.

Why the hell were they friends again?

Over text messages during the course of the evening, they established that, A: Gold would be responsible for the sunscreen, since this was his idea, and God, did Silver need sunscreen, B: each would bring their own supplies otherwise, and C: they would get their meals along the way. They also established that Gold had no common sense or foresight whatsoever, but Silver already knew that.

Still, as Silver got up the next day, he was thinking it might actually be fun. He would never admit that to Gold, of course, but he was honest enough to admit it to himself now. Oh, but for God's sake, no matter what Gold said, he wasn't a tsundere!

Since Silver had packed a bag the night before, he got to the train station five minutes early. He was not surprised that Gold ended up being ten minutes late, or that when he finally came, it was while lightly flirting with two girls.

Ever since Gold had started hitting on him as well, the general flirting had been toned down dramatically. It was still there, but Silver knew Gold well enough to suppose it would probably stop entirely if Silver ever responded.

However, contrary to Gold's belief, Silver was not the jealous type. He was the impatient type. So instead of trying to claim Gold as his and sweeping him off his feet or whatever that was in the TV dramas Gold's mother liked, he scowled at the jerk and muttered insults about time wasters because Gold seemed to be trying to walk _as slowly as possible_ , oh my God, Silver was going to kill him.

Gold finished talking to those girls and ambled over to him, one of them still giggling at him. Gold waved casually back _while simultaneously calling out, "Sorry for the wait, Silv," did he think Silver was_ _ **blind**_ _?_ Gold clearly wasn't sorry at all! He'd taken the maximum amount of time possible to get over here! Was he _trying_ to kill Silver by making him explode from the anger!?

Assassination through inducing enragement. Now that was a job Gold was scarily well-suited to. Silver would have to look into that. The possibilities were terrifying. It'd be hard to prove in court, and Gold could anger pretty much anyone . . .

"Hey, what're you thinking about?" Gold nudged him in the ribs, grinning. "It wouldn't be me, would it?"

Silver did actually punch him that time. Out of kindness, he held back on the strength.

"What was that for?" Gold complained, but followed him to a bench to wait for the train anyways.

It took ten minutes for the right one to arrive. Gold, cheery as ever, spent that time swinging his legs back and forth while singing loudly and off-key. Silver spent that time glaring at him and hissing at him to keep it down. Gold's general optimism was one of his best traits, but not when he was using it to torture people's ears. Cat yowling was more musical than _this_.

Oh well. At least he hadn't brought along his billiard cue.

The train ride was mostly uneventful, except for Gold pointing out the scenery, since Silver had let him have the seat with the better view. It was genuinely nice scenery, but Silver pretended to ignore it. Gold tried for attention too much as it was. Ignoring him would be beneficial for his ego.

"Aw, Silv, don't be a tsundere!"

"Stop calling me that! I'm not a tsundere! And we're not Japanese!"

Two excruciating hours later, they got off the train. It was almost noon by then, so they found a small café on the way to the beach and got sandwiches. An argument promptly ensued about who would be paying once it turned out Silver had misplaced his wallet.

"Silv, it's only, like, seven bucks, just let me pay."

"I can pay for myself! I'm not a girl!"

"Hey, who says a girl can't pay for herself? You know Crys would kill you if she heard you say that."

"Why didn't she come, anyways?"

"She's working over at her grandparents' for the weekend. I think she said it's the busy season for them cause a lot of people are going on vacation, so she's helping out."

Just then, Silver finally found his wallet pushed into the bottom of the wrong pocket in his bag. He paid grouchily and stomped off to the nearest free table, pointedly ignoring the chair Gold pulled out for him.

Gold took the chair instead, dragging it over so he was sitting across from Silver. "Come on, cheer up," he said, sounding uncharacteristically serious. A second passed, then he suddenly snapped his fingers and dug through his bag, grinning as he presented Silver with a large pink bottle that ruined the serious impression. "I got you extra-large, extra-strong sunscreen!"

The situation was too comical. A chuckle escaped Silver's mouth before he could cram it back in. He settled for glaring at Gold for causing it instead.

"That's more like it!" Gold said happily. "There's my perpetually cranky best bud!"

"'Perpetually'?" Silver hadn't know words that big were in Gold's vocabulary.

"You like it? Crys was using it a lot in a paper for History."

Since Crys and Gold were in the same history class, and Gold hadn't mentioned writing one himself . . . "Let me guess: you forgot to do it."

"Hey! That's hurtful, Silv," Gold whined, before admitting, "Yeah, that's totally true. Didn't realize until five hours before it was due, and Crys asked me to proofread hers. God, my mother was mad when she found out . . ." He was still _grinning_ , as if those had been _happy_ memories instead of loud lecturing you could hear from across the street. In fact, Silver had heard some of the yelling on the way to visit Crys, who lived one street past Gold.

There was something fundamentally wrong with the way Gold's brain was wired. Silver was a little afraid to find out what.

Rather than think on that (and Silver did not _brood_ , he considered things deeply and manfully), Silver ate his sandwich. Gold kept chattering in the background, but from experience, Silver knew most of it was purposeless rambling much like their history essay detour, and Gold just wanted to talk. He didn't necessarily care about anyone paying attention. So Silver tuned it out.

After Gold made some quick calls to his mother and to Red gushing about how much fun it had apparently been to take a train ride and eat a sandwich, they finally set off for the beach.

And then they promptly got lost.

"I told you, moron, that we were supposed to take a left there," Silver growled. He stabbed his finger at a spot on the map he'd printed, since unlike Gold, he was actually prepared. "See?" Both their phones were very out of date and didn't possess GPS functions.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, Silv." Gold peered at the spot he was pointing at. "If we took a right and then went straight for a while, wouldn't we make it to the beach anyways?"

"Yes, if that street wasn't closed for the week! There's construction there!" Never let it be said that Silver wasn't thorough in his research.

"Oh."

Silver really wished Crystal was here. Being his childhood friend, she was better at dealing with Gold.

"Well, how about over here?" Gold asked, tracing another route with his finger.

Silver studied it and couldn't find any problems. "It seems fine," he said grudgingly. Before Gold could gloat, he walked off towards the indicated path.

"Hey, wait for me!" Gold shouted, hurrying after him.

Even after Gold started heeding Silver's directions, it still took another half hour to get to the beach. By then, it was around one in the afternoon, blazingly hot. Silver could practically feel himself developing burns.

They had agreed that an umbrella would be too bulky, so neither had brought one. Instead, Silver ducked under a row of trees on the sidewalk in front of the beach and yelled at Gold to get out the sunscreen.

"Want me to help?" Gold asked, as Silver stripped down to his swimming trunks and stuffed his clothes in his bag.

"I can't reach my back," Silver said reluctantly, then added a muttered, "Thanks."

Gold was surprisingly gentle while rubbing the sunscreen into his back. And Silver was definitely not blushing. Not at all. If his cheeks were flushed, it was because of the heat. The reason Silver was so embarrassed at the prospect of Gold seeing his face was cause Gold would definitely think he was blushing, and not only was Gold's ego too big already, but dealing with the misconception would be a hassle.

Once Gold was finished with his back, Silver snatched the bottle out of his hand and snapped, "I can do the rest myself." He was careful not to let Gold get a good look at his face.

"Whatever you want, Silv," Gold said cheerily. He pulled out a second bottle of a lower-SPF sunscreen, since Gold was unfairly resistant to sunburn, and started applying it to himself.

That line better not have been inspired by the Princess Bride.

While Gold was putting on sunscreen, Silver scanned the beach, looking for a good spot to sit down and spread their towels. But that would all depend on what they wanted to do, and he still didn't know what Gold's plan was. It couldn't be to flirt with girls, since he could do that just fine in a place closer to home. Tanning probably wasn't the idea either. There were salons back at home that were less likely to cause cancer. And despite his love of goggles, Gold had never showed any particular inclination for swimming, and Silver had known him for over half a decade by now. The sand, maybe?

"What're you thinking about?" Gold asked, having apparently approached him while Silver wasn't paying attention. Silver jumped a little and then whirled around. "N-nothing," he stammered, and cursed himself for sounding so shifty.

Gold accepted that answer though it was clearly a lie, and Silver found himself grateful for the occasional flashes of astonishing sensitivity he showed. "Oh, hey, I think I see some hot girls over there," he said suddenly. "Wanna go check them out?"

Silver withdrew every kind thought he had ever thought about Gold. Immediately.

"No!" he shouted. "Why would I ever want to look at 'hot girls'?" Gold knew he was gay and everything!

Gold shrugged. "Just a thought," he said. He started to wander towards the beach, so Silver gave an irritated sigh and followed after him.

The beach was just as crowded as it looked. Silver kept bumping into random people who Gold somehow managed to evade without problem, probably because Gold was scouting out his own path, while Silver also had to try not to lose him in the horde of people. It was extremely irritating. Why had he believed Gold when he said it'd be fun, again?

It didn't help that Gold kept doing things like winking and smiling at random girls passing him by. A few of them even smiled back. Argh. If Silver was anywhere near Gold, he would punch him again for getting so distracted. And also just being a prick. There was that, too.

As Gold continued forward, the crowds kept thinning, since he was heading towards the left edge of the beach. Silver didn't know why, since that area was rockier than the middle.

Gold finally stopped near a cluster of boulders that grew into a cave further down. That reckless idiot better not have been planning to go into the cave; high tide was approaching. "This looks like a good spot," he said, slapping his towel onto the sand and flopping down.

Silver didn't know what else to do, so he just copied Gold and then stared up at the sky.

It was quite relaxing, actually. The heat was bearable, and the sky was a deep azure that was nice to look at. The birds soaring above the ocean made for sedate entertainment, and the steady sound of the waves was like a lullaby. The gentle breeze beginning to cool things off was a pleasant cap to the experience.

Silver was just beginning to drift off to sleep when something nudged his shoulder and he shot up to find Gold looming directly in his face, nearly smacking his head into his in the process. "Whoa, easy, Silver."

"E- _easy_? You're the one in my face!" Silver sputtered. "What was that for?"

"Nothing." Silver was about to punch him when Gold beckoned behind him. "Just wanted to show you this."

Silver scowled but looked obligingly anyways. Gold was standing in front of a . . . half-finished sandcastle? And where the hell had he gotten that bucket?

"Borrowed it!" Gold answered, waving to the nearest group of people some fifteen or twenty feet away. They waved back. "Their kids were finished with it, so I asked, and they said yes. Anyways, do you think if I add a tower over here, it'll fall over?"

"I'm not an engineer, you moron! And how do you know what I was thinking anyways? I never said it out loud!"

"Read your mind," Gold said easily, a gigantic grin on his face. "I know everything about you, Silver."

"That's more than a little creepy," Silver muttered.

"Tower?" asked Gold.

Silver considered it for a moment. "It'd look lopsided. Just finish the back and move on," he decided.

Gold stared at his sandcastle for a moment. "Hmm . . . actually, you know what? I'm kinda bored with this," he said, dropping a tiny plastic shovel that he had probably borrowed as well. He stood up and wandered towards the other family, shouting excited gibberish. Silver cursed him and followed very reluctantly.

Three hours, a game of beach volleyball, and one splash-filled, maturity-reducing water fight later, Gold had returned the bucket and shovel to his newfound friends, and Silver had gotten so drenched he'd needed to reapply sunscreen. Even the water-resistant stuff Gold had brought hadn't been much good. Silver was, however, willing to admit the day had been . . . sorta fun. Maybe. A little.

"We should probably head back soon," he informed Gold. "It's almost five."

"Guess you're right," said Gold sadly. "Oh, hey, wait a second! I found something earlier I wanted to give you!" He disappeared back towards their earlier secluded spot before Silver could protest.

Gold came running a few minutes later, with something tucked under his arm. When he presented it proudly to Silver, that "something" turned out to be a large pink shell, one of those scooped ones with scalloped edges and a delicate blush tint. It was pretty. It was quite pretty, in fact. Stupid sun making his cheeks heat up like that.

"I'm not a girl," Silver snapped, looking for the face-friendly sunscreen. Even if they were about to leave, it couldn't hurt to put on some more, especially since he was pretty sure he was burning at that very moment.

"So? Doesn't mean you can't have a shell." Gold pushed it into his hands. "Here, take it."

Dear God, why was the sun worsening as the afternoon drew on? His cheeks were going to be permanently red by the time they got home. "Idiot," Silver muttered.

"Aw, but you love me anyways," Gold sang, putting his arm around Silver again.

It was kinda true.


End file.
